UI and frame rate

[Dalisca]

Hello! I'm hoping that someone here will be able to assist.

My husband is new to EQ2, thus me handling this situation. When he is playing, his frame rate is absolutely terrible, so I tinkered with his UI settings a little bit. He was originally getting 3-4 frames per second. I disabled voice chat, which took him from 3-4 FPS to 4-5 FPS. I disabled sound looping, which took him from 4-5 FPS to 5-6 FPS. The odd part is that, when the UI is disabled via F10, the frame rate goes from slow as dirt to being flawless. Turn the UI back on, and the frame rate goes back to being slow as dirt again.

I am going to note that he is playing with Windows XP on a Macbook with an Intel GMA 950 graphics card. I know that this is not a supported card, and that it's more of a business-end card. However, it is bizarre that the 3-D game graphics run perfectly without the UI, but terribly with it enabled. His system runs LOTRO absolutely beautifully.

My question is this: Is there an alternative UI that I may try which could provide better game functionality while enabled? Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!